Climate change is damaging people's lives
today. Even if world leaders agree the strictest possible curbs on greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions, the prospects are very bleak for hundreds of millions
of people, most of them among the world's poorest. This paper puts the
dramatic stories of some of those people alongside the latest science on
the impacts of climate change on humans. Together they explain why climate
change is fundamentally a development crisis.

As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd heads off
to major international meetings with climate change high on the agenda
this week, a new report reveals that seasons which were once distinct are
shifting, destroying harvests and causing widespread hunger.